Making arms weightless

The client has an unusually severe case of osteoporosis resulting in difficulties in lifting her hands to her mouth and being able to feed herself.

A frame of 25 mmx 2mm mild steel box section has been welded together and supports a counterweight system to unload the client’s arms.  Counterweights are housed within the frame and wires transmit their load, via pullies, to the client’s wrists.  Comfortable tubular bandage loops (with ‘tails’) slip around the wrists to transmit the loads.   The client uses the tails on the wrist loops to pull the loops down when she wants to slip them onto her wrists; she prefers this to a system of quarter turn locks to keep the counterweights in the upper location whilst she places her hands in the loops.  The frame has not been painted as the client now relies on it so much that she does not want to let go of it.  Similarly, the large wheels, lashed-up at the rear of the frame to make frame movement easier on carpet, have not been finalised. The client finds that this device is fully effective in enabling her to eat and drink ‘normally’ at the table.   The client also uses the frame for arm mobility exercises and finds that it enables her to write normally at the table again .